DADD Prism Series - Volume 1
By Melissa M. Jones
This first book in the DADD Prism Series is designed for teachers, parents, teacher trainees, and other service providers. It provides practical ways to resolve behavioral concerns of students with mental retardation, autism, and other developmental disabilities. Focuses on responding to the communicative intent of various behavior problems.

DADD Prism Series - Volume 2Dr. David Katims
This text is a practitioner-oriented monograph presenting an optimistic perspective on outcomes for emerging readers with mental retardation. It includes many practical strategies for assisting students with developmental disabilities to gain meaning from text and to communicate in written form.

DADD Prism Series - Volume 3
Tina Taylor Dyches and Mary Anne Prater
The third volume in DADD's Prism Series is written by teachers, librarians, and parents. The authors provide a practical, thought-provoking examination of how books for children (books using primarily pictures, as well as books using primarily text) address the topic of disabilities. An extensive annotated bibliography will assist in selecting appropriate books for home or school libraries. Ten easy-to-use activities for classroom teachers are provided.

DADD Prism Series - Volume 4Barbara C. Gartin, Nikki L. Murdick, Marcia Imbeau, and Darlene E. Perner
This fourth volume in the DADD Prism series is designed to help teachers plan learning environments, content, process, and products to enable students with developmental disabilities to succeed in inclusive classrooms. The book gives concrete, detailed examples of how curriculum and instruction can be structured for students with a wide range of learning needs, and in a range of grade levels and subjects.

DADD Prism Series - Volume 5Edited by Robert A. Stodden and Stanley H. Zucker
This volume presents an organized collection of peer-reviewed articles focused upon issues faced by young persons with intellectual disabilities and those who support them as they prepare for and transition to postsecondary education and other life-long learning activities. The reader is provided with an overview of this field of work, a range of approaches and models currently being used, and the current status on the quality of post-school life for young person with intellectual disabilities.

By James CastleBorn in the early 1900s in rural Idaho, James Castle was believed to be “deaf, mute, illiterate and intellectually disabled.” Never speaking, he nevertheless produced tens of thousands of artworks using such found materials as ink made from soot and saliva, pens fashioned from twigs or sticks, and canvases scavenged from scrap paper. Today his behavioral and communication characteristics would likely be interpreted as consistent with autism.

This Idaho Public Television-aired video documentary uses Castle's art (drawings, constructions, books) and exclusive interviews with Castle's childhood friends, family and art experts to tell his unique story, helping the viewer to see the world as it might be experienced by a gifted artist with autism.

James Castle’s primary form of communication was the thousands of drawings and illustrations he produced during his lifetime. Houses, domestic scenes, family members and friends were endlessly rendered in what some have termed a primitive “folk art” style from crude tools and supplies — ink made from soot and saliva, pens fashioned from twigs or sticks and canvases scavenged from scrap paper, cardboard, books and the many catalogs that flowed through his parents’ general store and post office. Castle left behind more than 20,000 artworks.

In retrospect James Castle’s behavioral and communication characteristics are consistent with what would be seen as autism today. His haunting art work as provided and commented on in this biography of this extraordinary man offers unique and unparalleled insights into how the world might be perceived by a gifted artist with autism.

The Publications Committee of the Division on Developmental Disabilities is pleased to announce its most recent video offering. “Look, I'm in College!” follows Terence, Benny, Donald, and Rayquan, four New York City students through an extraordinary experience. Working with a group of New York City educators and Pace University, these four African American young men from challenging socio-economic backgrounds achieved a small miracle in the world of higher education. Each of these individuals enrolled at Pace University. And each is diagnosed with autism.

For students with autism spectrum disorders such as theirs, going to college was rarely an option ... until now. Thanks to this program, public school students with autism and cognitive challenges from the borough of Manhattan now have the opportunity to attend college classes with their nondisabled peers.

“Look, I'm in College!”” introduces viewers to these four inspiring students, and to the educators who made this dream a reality.

Member Price: $ 34.95
Non-Member Price: $ 39.95
The video is available from CEC Publications.

The Division on Developmental Disabilities is pleased to announce the publication of a series of works in developmental disabilities. These four reference books, edited by Robert Sandieson, Val Sharpe, and Jack Hourcade and published by PRO-ED, will be essential for anyone concerned with fundamental issues related to developmental disabilities.

The editors reviewed approximately 1500 articles from DDD’s journalEducation and Training in Mental Retardation/Developmental Disabilitiespublished from 1966-2004, and selected the finest efforts of writers in the field. Articles were chosen based on historical significance; contemporary value; representation of the cross-section of theories, research approaches and methodologies within a category; and representation across the lifespan. The articles were then grouped into four books.

This new DDD book features contributions from some of the most notable names in developmental disabilities and provides current professional thought on such fundamental issues as the meaning of developmental disabilities, learning characteristics, assessment and instructional planning, and inclusive program.